C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
And the vin # is 8z74a515427 Anyone decode that to see what body & engine
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Ford Country Squire Wagon field find
- Thread starter C Body Bob
- Start date
traintech55
Senior Member
Best I could break it down is this
8 - 1978
Z - Assembly Plant
74 - Mercury Marquis S/W
A - 460 4BBL. Not Police
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
Thank you !!!'
traintech55
Senior Member
Your Welcome. I have to pay you back some how for all the pretty girls you post.
I don't think I have ever heard anyone express the opinion that a 360 was a slug. Maybe the 400-2 though.
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
Back in the 70's/80's the 340 vs 360 debate. The 360 was considered a smog motor. Low compression 2 barrel cast crank & small valves. It was not popular. In the 90's 340's got hard to find & then the stroker kits got popular. That's when the 360 started getting respect. Bone stock the best 360 La will not run with the best 340. With good aftermarket parts it will.
Yes the 400 suffered the same opinions. It was a low compression mostly 2 barrel engine with a small cam & cast crank that replace the popular 383. So it too was considered a smog motor. Over time racers came to appreciate the big bore, strong block & rods. The hardened seats in the valves for unleaded gas. And the heads proved to be as good as 906 heads. Stroker kits (452 is popular) a good cam & you had a killer drag motor. With a very low budget. Bone stock the best 400 would not run with the best 383. With aftermarket parts it would.
I've been doing some reasearch on the Ford 460. Legendary Ford engine builder John Kasse has parts to wake up a 460. He even makes Boss Hemi conversion heads that are a direct bolt on.
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C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
There is a 429/460 following out there, I'm just not a part of it. The later ones are much like a smog 440 IMO, thirsty and reliable with torque being their main strength. No love or hate... just cars I worked on. Mix and match engines and transmissions from Ford was always a lot more complicated than Mopar or GM, which is most of what kept me away. I bought a number of $50 cars that got a $50-$75 junkyard transmission. I never did master what Ford parts I could get away with.
BTW, I get the 340 thing, but that engine was never built in a "low performance" version.
Well, for me I am talking about how the engines felt in stock applications, not what their potential would be in modified or racing applications. I had both 383-4 bbl engines and 360-2 bbl stock engines, and both were quick off the line and felt like they had decent torque. In both applications, a high stall speed torque converter was used in the early 70s, and that brought them both alive. When saddled with a low stall speed torque converter, then they couldn't get into their power band so quickly, and therefore, felt more sluggish. And of course, any 340 Duster up until around 1972 was pretty quick in any A body. After that, even the smog 340s weren't so impressive, stock.
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
That's was the gripe against the 360. Stock form. It replaced the 340. In 1974 the 360 Duster had the best 1/4 mile time of any Chrysler product that year yet it was a second slower than the 70-71 340 Duster that was NOT the quickest 1/4 mile car in the line up those years. That sums it up. It was the best available & was slow compared to a similar car just a few years previous that was not the best. Back then they sold leaded & unleaded gas at the same stations. There was a phobia against cars that used the unleaded gas. The muscle cars used leaded. One again the 360 & 400's fell into the smog motor category. They both used the low octane unleaded gas.
traintech55
Senior Member
AH YES, the wonderful mid 1970's. It was a very sad time for everyone involved in the auto industry. The good thing is after a decade of cars with no soul, it started the auto makers on the road to where we are at today.
All I can say is that I totally disagree at least for the early 1970s. Have you ever really owned a 360 anything in the early 70s or are you just quoting 1/4 mile times? I have owned several 360s up until 1973 and none of them felt sluggish or could be considered dogs especially off the line and in routine driving. I even have a stock 360 in my 1973 1-ton Dodge Maxivan (with the Dana axle), and I love it. And I drove everything from Chrysler routinely when I worked for them from 1969 - 1981. And I had to do competitive evaluations as part of my job. The 360s were very competitive.
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